Installing Salome platfrom on Fedora (12 x86_64)

The salome platform is a good open source platform for FEA/CFD etc. It includes a good preprocessor to easily create geometries, mesh them in a variety of ways and also import/export various types of formats. I generally use it with OpenFOAM, which is a FVM library and collection of programs to solve various types of flows and also structures and other problems.
Check them out at http://www.salome-platform.org/ and http://www.openfoam.com/features/
So the main thing i'm writing this is as a reminder to me and to save hoursof other people's time who try installing salome-platform on any of the modern linux distros.

Step 1 > Download the package. If the package is not available for you distro choose debian or mandriva whichever is closer to your distro (both work in case of fedora)
Step 2 > Extract (tar -xvf filename) to a convenient location (your home or anywhere else doesn't matter. u can delete this later)
Step 3 > Change the file config_files/gcc-common.sh to match your installation of gcc. I replaced gcc_root="/usr/bin".
Step 4 > Run ./runInstall. Choose appropriate options in the gui and finish the wizard.
Step 5 > To run salome type:
$ . KERNEL_<version>/salome.sh
$ runSalome
Thats it
Step 6 > Now steps 1 to 5 are simple, anyone can do it without any help. Here comes the main point which took me hours despite me already having installed and used various versions of salome in previous fedora installations.
If you see an error message like

Configure parser: Warning : could not find user configuration file
runSalome running on localhost
Configure parser: Warning : could not find user configuration file
Searching for a free port for naming service: 2810 2811 2812 2813 2814 2815 2816 2817 2818 2819 2820 2821 - OK
Searching Naming Service ++++++++++Failed to narrow the root naming context
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/salome_5.1.2/KERNEL_5.1.2/bin/salome/runSalome.py", line 648, in useSalome
    clt = startSalome(args, modules_list, modules_root_dir)
  File "/opt/salome_5.1.2/KERNEL_5.1.2/bin/salome/runSalome.py", line 429, in startSalome
    clt=orbmodule.client(args)
  File "/opt/salome_5.1.2/KERNEL_5.1.2/bin/salome/orbmodule.py", line 48, in __init__
    self.initNS(args or {})
  File "/opt/salome_5.1.2/KERNEL_5.1.2/bin/salome/orbmodule.py", line 81, in initNS
    sys.exit(1)
SystemExit: 1

on running salome then here's what you need to do.

1 > edit /etc/hosts (of course you need root for that) and make sure you have a line such as

127.0.0.1 <hostname>

in there. Most probably on a desktop system <hostname> will be localhost

2 > If you still get the same error then

delete any lines in /etc/hosts corresponding to IPv6, i.e. of the type

::1 localhost

This is the part that took me hours to figure out. So now you know, omniorb probably does not support IPv6 as of yet. Someone should hopefully fix it soon.

Why i use Fedora linux

This question crops up fairly too often in my conversation with friends who use linux (most of them use ubuntu). So i decided to settle the matter once and for all.
My reason for using fedora is simple, its the same reason why some people like strawberry flavoured ice-creams and some hate it, its THEIR OWN PREFERENCE.
Also i first started with fedora because it was the first linux i ever saw (in my NSL computer lab for cs101 course). Yes, contrary to popular belief, i did not use linux from my childhood, the first computer in my home was 3 months before i joined IIT. And the first linux i saw was in IIT. I event learnt my first two languages C/C++ and Java by READING BOOKS, and even read the complete print copy of "Dive into Python" before actually diving into python!
The first linux i used was Knoppix live which came with a dvd of a magazine. I used it exclusively for 2 weeks as i didn't know how to install an os. Then after burning about 6-7 cds (i wasted a few) i installed my first linux, Fedora 5 Bordeaux and have installed every Fedora release ever since, and never felt the need to change my distro. Most of them are mostly the same from the inside.

However, just in case you want to make points, i'll list a few:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Overview

• Fedora (+RH) devs work hard on bringing new features in linux. Many of the new features in linux are brought by them. For example the latest features in linux have been developed by fedora/RH devs including but not limited to the NetworkManager, pulseaudio, packagekit,.pulseaudio and many more. Also check http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Red_Hat_contributions
  
•  The openness of fedora is what i really like and wish all the world were so open. By this open i do not mean open-source code, i mean openness of mind, acceptance of others, openness of governance, openness of activities, no hidden agenda.
• The fedora features mention exactly what is there in a new fedora release (many of the things are own contributions). Compare http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/12/FeatureList with http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/910features . I couldn't figure out what different from the previous release apart from firefox 3.5, openoffice 3.1 and ubuntuone.
• Fedora stays closer to upstream and is generally more updated.
• http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Foundations
  

As someone put it somewhere on a blog, Fedora is about doing right, Ubuntu is about making things work. Of course you could make things work in short term by a few hacks,  but long term working requires doing the right thing :-)